TABLE OF CONTENTS
- •Free assessment meeting
- •Evaluation Criteria at a Glance
- •1. The Team’s Real Seniority
- •2. Method and Deliverables
- •3. Security and Data Access
- •4. References and Similar Projects
- •5. Knowledge Transfer and Documentation
- •Price: What to Watch For
- •Red Flags
- •How Aryasoft Works
- •Frequently Asked Questions
- •Let’s plan your project together
There are five core criteria for choosing a database consulting firm: the real seniority and platform expertise of the team, the working method and the deliverables, the security and data access model, references and experience with similar projects, and knowledge transfer and documentation. Price matters, but decisions made on price alone often end up costing more when the project has to be done again.
This guide is for IT managers and procurement teams planning to bring in consultants for a database project: performance tuning, a version upgrade, a migration, a high availability design or a health check. If you’re looking for ongoing operational support instead, our guide to choosing a managed DBA service will fit better.
Free assessment meeting
Tell us about your project and goals; we will clarify the scope, the risks and the way forward together.
Evaluation Criteria at a Glance
| Criterion | Weight | How to measure it |
|---|---|---|
| Team seniority and expertise | High | Names, years of experience and platform expertise of the people who will work on the project |
| Method and deliverables | High | A written project plan, phases, documents to be delivered and acceptance criteria |
| Security and data access | High | Connection method, activity logs, confidentiality agreement, scope of data access |
| Similar project experience | Medium | Completed projects of the same scale and sector; detailed case write-ups, even anonymized |
| Knowledge transfer | Medium | Documentation, joint work with your team, post-project support |
| Price and commercial model | Medium | Fixed price or hourly; how out-of-scope work is priced |
1. The Team’s Real Seniority
The value of consulting depends on the experience of the person doing the work. Senior experts joining the sales meeting doesn’t mean they’ll work on the project. Clarify these points at the proposal stage:
- Who will work on the project, and how many years of experience does each person have on this platform?
- Who will run the critical steps, for example a production cutover?
- What happens if the team changes halfway through the project?
- If you run several platforms (SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL), is there a dedicated expert for each?
2. Method and Deliverables
A good consulting proposal contains measurable goals and concrete deliverables instead of general promises like “we’ll improve your performance”.
| Project type | What the proposal should show |
|---|---|
| Performance tuning | A baseline measurement, target metrics, which queries will be reviewed, how changes will be tested |
| Version upgrade | Compatibility analysis, a rehearsal in a test environment, a rollback plan, an estimate of downtime |
| Migration | Inventory, the chosen method and why, a data validation method, a cutover runbook, a rollback plan |
| High availability | RPO and RTO targets, an architecture diagram, failover tests, operations documentation |
| Health check | Areas covered, tools and queries used, report format, prioritization method |
Warning
Don’t accept an upgrade or migration proposal without a rollback plan. What gets rolled back, to which point and how fast must be written down before the work starts.
3. Security and Data Access
A database consultant gets access to an organization’s most critical asset. That makes the security model as important as technical skill:
| Question | Expected answer |
|---|---|
| How will you connect to our systems? | Through the method the organization chooses (VPN, jump server), from company-owned, managed devices with multi-factor authentication |
| Are your actions logged? | Yes; every action is logged and can be shared on request. |
| Will you copy our data? | No; the working environment is managed and no customer data is kept on the consultant’s side. |
| Will you sign a confidentiality agreement? | Yes, before work starts |
| What permissions do you need? | The least privilege the job requires; elevated permissions only for as long as needed |
These questions matter even more in regulated sectors such as banking. In Türkiye, for example, the regulation on banks’ information systems and electronic banking services requires primary and secondary systems to be located in the country, with enough in-country staff to ensure continuity. Confirm at the proposal stage that the consulting firm can work within requirements like these.
4. References and Similar Projects
A reference list alone isn’t enough; what matters is how a similar problem was solved. Ask for:
- A detailed account of a completed project of similar scale and sector: the problem, the method, the result and the measured gain.
- How a problem that came up during the project was handled. A project story with no problems at all isn’t realistic.
- If possible, a short call with a reference customer.
5. Knowledge Transfer and Documentation
When the project ends, your team will run the system. At the end of the engagement you should have:
- A list of every change made, with the reason for each
- Architecture and configuration documentation
- Operating procedures: restoring from backup, failover, applying patches
- A knowledge transfer session with your team
Note
Missing documentation is the biggest problem at handover. Attach the list of documents to be delivered to the contract, and tie the final payment to their delivery.
Price: What to Watch For
Comparing proposals on the total price alone is misleading. Make sure you’re comparing the same scope:
| Topic | Question to ask |
|---|---|
| Scope | Which servers, databases and tasks does the proposal cover, and what’s out of scope? |
| Pricing model | Fixed price or hourly? If hourly, what’s the estimated total effort? |
| After-hours work | How is after-hours work, such as a production cutover, priced? |
| Out-of-scope work | How is new work that comes up during the project approved and priced? |
| Post-project support | Is support during the first weeks after cutover included? |
Red Flags
- Proposals that promise exact timelines and results without looking at your environment
- No mention of who will work on the project
- No written method, test plan or rollback plan
- A working model that wants to copy your databases into the consultant’s own environment
- No documentation or knowledge transfer in the proposal
- An approach that sees more hardware or more licenses as the answer to every problem
How Aryasoft Works
At Aryasoft, only senior experts work on projects. Every project starts with a written scope, method and rollback plan. For SQL Server health checks we use HELT360, a read-only tool we built ourselves, and we show every script we run.
Our security model rests on one principle: we manage your environment, not your data. Connections come only from company-owned, centrally managed computers with multi-factor authentication; every action is logged, and no customer data is kept on Aryasoft’s side. At the end of the project, every change, the documentation and the operating procedures are handed over in writing. You’ll find all our services on our database services page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Database Consulting
Let’s plan your project together
Aryasoft’s senior experts clarify the scope, the risks and the way forward with you, and run every project with a written method and rollback plan.
